Wrangler’s Rooted Collection claims to be the world's first cotton sustainability programme to link individual farms with finished garments while revealing their reduced environmental impact in field-level detail.
The denim brand is working with cotton farmers in an initiative which takes sustainability right back to the soil – and which the company believes may be unique in the way it can be traced from grower to garment.
The Rooted Collection of jeans and t-shirts all feature the name of the farm where the cotton was grown – one of five in the same number of US states. While impressive data on environmental and economic performance, from water and energy use to soil health and yields, is collated at field level.
Roian Atwood, Wrangler’s senior global sustainable business director, says the key was finding the right farmers who were interested in innovative methods of land stewardship, coupled with partnering with digital experts on extracting the data.
